1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an intelligent service agent and, more particularly, to an intelligent service agent operating within an Intel® HMP (Host Media Processing) server environment using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) transmission lines.
2. Description of Related Art
A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for establishing sessions in an Internet Protocol (IP) network. A session could be a simple two-way telephone call or it could be a collaborative multimedia conference session. The ability to establish these sessions means that a host of innovative services becomes possible, such as voice-enriched e-commerce, Web page click-to-dial, Instant Messaging with buddy lists, and IP Centrex services.
Over the past few years, the VoIP community has adopted SIP as its protocol of choice for signaling. SIP is a Request for Comments standard (RFC 3261) from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the body responsible for administering and developing the mechanisms upon which the Internet operates. SIP is still evolving and being extended as technology matures and SIP products are socialized in the marketplace.
The IETF's philosophy is one of simplicity, wherein a developer only needs to specify what, in fact, it desired to be specified. SIP is very much of this mold, having been developed purely as a mechanism to establish sessions. SIP does not know about the details of a session, as it just initiates, terminates and modifies sessions. This inherent simplicity means that SIP is scalable, extensible and adaptable for different architectures and deployment scenarios.
SIP is a request-response protocol that closely resembles two other Internet protocols, namely, HTTP and SMTP (the protocols that power the World Wide Web and e-mail, respectively). Consequently, SIP sits comfortably alongside Internet applications. Using SIP, telephony becomes another Web application and integrates easily into other Internet services. SIP is a simple toolkit that service providers can use to build converged voice and multimedia services.
In order to provide telephony services, there is a need for a number of different standards and protocols to come together, specifically, to ensure transport (e.g., RTP), to authenticate users (e.g., RADIUS, DIAMETER), to provide directories (e.g., LDAP), to be able to guarantee voice quality (e.g., RSVP, YESSIR) and to inter-work with today's telephone network. The foregoing discussion relates specifically to SIP.
The Intel® Host Media Processing (HMP) software platform offers flexibility in configuring media processing features and cost of ownership savings, because it only requires one or more standard computers without involving any proprietary hardware, such as digital signal processors (DSPs). Furthermore, HMP is a software-only building block for creating IP media servers for small and medium-sized businesses to implement services such as voice mail, unified messaging and conferencing.
The solutions that can be built utilizing HMP can include both video and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, such as those often found in call centers that include applications with PBX functionality, voice messaging, unified messaging and conferencing servers. Exemplary video applications include video mail, video portals, video color ring back and video caller ID.
Because Intel® HMP, such as Netstructure HMP, is a software-only media-processing product for standard high volume (SHV) servers, costs are lower for procurement, development, deployment and maintenance. Since HMP is standards-based and does not require specialized hardware, solutions using the product are fast and easy to develop and deploy, easily scalable and very flexible. HMP is also an ideal solution for developing media servers for a modular network. Furthermore, in an IP-only environment, no physical inventory must be stocked or shipped, and no onsite installation is necessary.
Independent software vendors; original equipment manufacturers for computers and for telecom who build IVR, voice, or video mail, unified messaging, conferencing, and voice or video portal solutions for providers; and small and medium enterprises are envisioned to benefit from implementing HMP.
HMP allows one to easily scale the current solutions up and down and enable new solutions, such as applications for handheld devices and telematics, to be developed. The concept of developing a VoIP phone company on HMP is very similar to developing a Web-farm. Namely, if and when one needs to service more clients, one simply adds additional servers equipped with HMP.
The newest release of HMP may be used to create components for converged IP voice networks and the modular network, and can also be enabled in a time division multiplex (TDM) environment, utilizing interface boards for T-1/E-1 and digital stations designed for use with HMP.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connectivity for HMP is available through media gateways, such as the Intel® NetStructure PBX-IP Media Gateway and through network interface boards that are available for Release 2.0. The gateway model enables a modular architecture with the media capability existing separately from the gateway. The network interface boards enable a single server solution that includes gateway capability and media.
The operating systems that the Intel® HMP solution supports are: Release 2.0 for Windows® and Release 1.5 for Linux. Release 2.0 runs on Windows XP® or Windows Server 2003. Release 1.5 runs on Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 3, SUSE® Linux Professional 9.2, and Debian® GNU/Linux. HMP currently supports Intel Pentium® III, Pentium® 4, and Pentium® M processors, as well as single and dual Intel® Xeon® processor configurations with respect to Releases 1.5 and 2.0. Release 2.0 also supports the Celeron® M processor. Hyper-Threading Technology is supported on both single and dual-processor configurations. It is to be understood that HMP may be supported on future hardware and configurations thereof. Release 2.0 for Windows® increases the potential system density from 240 ports of IVR or conferencing on RTP G.711 to 400 ports per server. This configuration has been qualified on a 3.6 GHz Dual Intel Xeon processor-based server, and has been determined to consume approximately 65% of the CPU. Release 1.5 for Linux delivers 240 channels of voice or 120 channels of video processing in a 3.2 GHz Dual Intel Xeon processor-based server with about 50% of processor capacity available for the application.
SIP support is currently available on all HMP releases for both Linux and Windows®. HMP is delivered with a software library that contains an API for integration purposes. Even hybrid environments can be handled by Intel NetStructure HMP. At present, with the newest release (2.0), Intel® NetStructure Digital Network Interface Boards provide a PSTN interface to HMP and gateway functionality. These boards allow application providers to support hybrid/converged TDM-IP solutions. The network interface boards are available in one, two or four ports and can support up to 400 Digital Signal Processors (DSP).
The aforementioned benefits associated with HMP and related hardware and software, including SIP integration, provide a platform for building full-featured, scalable and cost-effective software based IP media servers for various telephony applications.